So, the government hired new firefighters to try and prevent extensive damage to national forests in the first place, and then had the foresight to fund this really incredible greenhouse to help restore the forest they couldn't save?

I kind of like that. Hey, a government policy that makes sense to me!

Did anyone catch that some of these seeds are 40 years old? They're like the Noah's Ark of California's forests....

That's very true in many areas. Fire supression has allowed more trees to grow than would occur in a natural forest. Most forests, at least, in the lower 48 are already very "unnatural" even if there's never been logging there.

Between 1600 and 1920, 13 percent of the land area (29 percent of the forested area) was gradually lost due to clearing for agriculture and towns. Most of this clearing occurred between 1850 and 1910, and by far the largest part was cleared for farming. Cities actually occupy a very small percentage of the total land area.

Today the United States has about the same area of forestland as it did in 1920, even though there has been a 143 percent increase in population between then and today. There are two main reasons why the area of land in crops has remained stable since 1920.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) State of the World's Forests 2001 reports that North American forest cover expanded nearly 10 million acres (4 million hectares) over the last decade.

Source:http://www.forestinformation.com/Forest_Statistics.asp

What this doesn't take into account is the almost complete loss of old growth forests, ant the fact that a lot of the forests have only basic ecosystems from constant logging, essentially most of our forests are tree farms. Aread like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and California's dwindling redwood forests are a rarity.

First, in 1910, about one-quarter of the land in crops was used to produce food for horses and other draft animals. The advent of the automobile made it possible to use that land to produce food for people instead. Second, advances in technology, chemistry and genetics have made it possible to produce much more food on the same amount of land.

Unfortunately, the US is actually doing a little better than the word as a whole, though we still have less old growth than most.

From the above link:

"During the rise of civilization, 40 percent of the forest cover that existed 5,000 years ago has been converted to farms and cities. Most of this deforestation has occurred during the past 200 years to grow the food for a rapidly rising population. Today, the picture looks something like this:

World's entire land base covers 13.1 billion hectares (32.8 billion acres)World's forests cover 3.9 billion hectares (9.8 billion acres - or 29.6 percent of the land base)Between 1980 and 1990 there was a net loss of 130 million hectares (325 million acres), or three percent of the world's total forest land. Between 1990 and 2000, the net loss of forest dropped to 90 million hectares (225 million acres), or 2.3 percent of the total area of forest.

In recent years, forests have been lost more rapidly in Africa and South America than on the other continents. New plantation forests have compensated for a reduction in natural forests in Asia. Forest areas in Europe have increased during the past 20 years. In North America, forest areas remained the same in Canada and increased slightly in the United States. Forest cover has decreased in Mexico and Central America.

The net loss in forest cover in recent decades is a result of high rates of deforestation in the tropical developing countries, mainly due to clearing for agriculture to feed a growing population. There has actually been a net increase in forest cover in the developed countries, including the U. S., during this period. Unfortunately the rate of deforestation in the developing countries is far higher than the rate of reforestation in the developed countries."

Are you guys aware that in fundamentalist Islamic countries, people are taxed for every tree on their land?

Most poor people have no choice but to cut down all the trees on their land. Lebanon used to be covered with cedars. Now it's as bare and as stinky as yesterday's kitty litter box. Thank the muslims for that one.

I would have thought that Cedar was chopped down just for the profit involved in selling what is now a rather rare wood. I've never heard the tree/muslim thing either.

Well, I vote for this link. Warm and fuzzy :) My local council ancourages us to plant fire-resistant trees (yes there are such things) near our houses to create a fire break that is still leafy and pretty - I wonder if the 'replacers' do the same thing. It's a great idea.

Careful -Mike Weath-, someone might decide to complain about you for cutting and pasting (lol). Some people are sad, aren't they ?